Thursday, May 9, 1940
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
"t O-
. i ) . , :
. bombers, but no bombs
Mow America gofi" fine news
Norway's Benedicts Arnolds
Mi
mm
4 "
1
Leland Stow
ON MONDAY EVENING, April 8, Leland
Stowe correspondent for the Chicago
Daily News and its syndicate sat in
Oslo's Grand Hotel talking idly about
Europe's dormant war.
No guns rumbled nearer than the Sylt
The good burghers of Oslo were safe in
their beds.
At half past midnight the city heard a
noise like a thousand angry motorists
stalled in a traffic jam the raucous bel
lowing of air raid sirens.
At 7:45 the next morning, Stowe and
his colleagues, Edmund Stevens of the
Christian Science Monitor and Warren
lrvin of N. B. C, watched Nazi bombers
roar over the trim Norwegian housetops
-fiot in sky-darkening swarms, but by twos
and threes. No bombs fell. Scarcely a shot
was fired.
By 2 in the afternoon, the incredible
had happened. The tramp of Nazi boots
was echoing through Oslo streets. The
conquerors, marching by threes, made the
thin gray column look longer. People
gaped like yokels on the Fourth of July
at the spectacle of 1500 Germans taking
possession of a city of 256,000-a handful
of invaders so sure of easy conquest that
they had a brass band!
Was this an instance of awesome Nazi
might?. . . of a little neutral's pathetic un
preparedness? To the keen mind of Leland
Stowe, sharpened by experience with Eu
ropean intrigue, familiar with Oslo's de
fenses, the thing didn't make sense.
Stowe got busy, and began to pick up
the pieces of the most fantastic story of
f
.. the brass hats arrive.
X vClc
A
i
.': .;::;?: j.:5X ::ix;?;:Si:;
:::)
4 r
life;
'A
,..v
. -fv,y.'.-
. . into Oslo led by a band
the war. A story of a small but potent Nor
wegian war fleet in the harbor whose crews
had been deliberately ordered ashore. A
story of fortresses and anti-aircraft bat
teries that didn't fire, or fired startlingly
wide of the mark. A story of mines whose
electrical control system had been discon
nected. A story of a free people infested
through and through with spies, who could
never have crept into key positions with
out the aid of traitors.
Chauffeured by a fair compatriot with a
smiling comeback to German gallantries,
Stowe escaped to Stockholm and gave the
world the news of Norway's gigantic in
side job. Another feather in the cap of the
reporter who won the Pulitzer Prize in
1930 ... the 40-year-old man who was told
by a New York newspaper last fall that be
was "too old to cover a war." . ,
Take a poll among newsmen for ace cor
respondent of World War II, and LWand
Stowe's name would probably top the list
But there would be runners-up . , .
Lochner of AP and Oechsner of UP,
covering Berlin. Walter Kerr of the N. Y.
Herald Tribune. Columbia Broadcasting's
Ed Murrow in London. Otto Tolischus of
the N. Y. Times. Frank R. Kent, Jr, of
the Baltimore Sun. Young Bill White of
Emporia, Kansas, doing the old man
proud in Germany and Finland.
Yet no one man, not Richard Harding
Davis himself, could cover the present
war. For total war means total reporting
and total reporting means manpower. All
told, it takes 10,000 men to report the
holocaust in Europe.
The economic front is everywhere and
all newsmen help to cover it. The corre
spondent in the dugout, noticing how the
men are fed and clothed. The man in the
capital gathering facts on production. The
traveling thinkman with eye peeled for
slowdown or sabotage. The editors or bu
reau heads who fit the jigsaw puzzle to
gether. Then there is the diplomatic front, a
labyrinth where only the most experi
enced can find their way around. And the
propaganda front . . . reactions of the peo
ple .. . an area that takes the shrewdest
kind of reporting.
The din of battle is just an incident in
this war. It is the touch of red with which
a painter brightens a somber canvas. It
means something only when seen against
the rest of the picture.
Just the same, we all love red, so the
newsmen go through hell and high water
to give it to us. And a whole long year ago,
TIME, the Weekly Newsmagazine, began
to paint the background that would give
those flaming stories meaning-in Back
ground for War, time's famous panorama
of Europe on the brink.
In every new issue, TIME changes and
illuminates the shadows behind the crack
ling, red-hot stories of the week. Stories
from Time's own big and growing foreign
staff, from the Associated Press, of which
Time is a member, from the ace corre
spondents (with enthusiastic credit).
time gives the total coverage that total
war demands. TIME unravels the economic
and diplomatic snarl. TIME reconciles con
flicting stories weighs one against the
other, knows the sources and the mental
slant of each reporter, comes up with the
composite, clarified answer.
No man knows where the next explo
sion will be and neither does TIME . . . But
Time knows and tells where the TNT is
stored.
It's pretty important to know where wa
are in this war. TIME shows you both the
woods and the trees.
Thii ii on of riet of advertisement in which the Editors of Time hop
to give College Students, a clearer picture of the world of newt-gathering, newt
'riting, and newi-reading-and the part TIME playi in helping you to grajp,
measure, and uie the history of your lifetime at you live the ttory of your life.
OTIME
TW F IVPPll V M C U C M A ri ATI li e
i 1 1 k. ir t. u ivi- i y if w ? ii n vi n a. i ii u. , i
.v:-.v.v...v.-. .;.jS
V
